Mittwoch, 11. April 2007

Perfect day



Although winter is my favourite season I like spring as well, particularly this one. Today was the most beautiful day in these holidays. I got up at half past seven and I went snowboarding at half past eight.
With the cablecar it takes me only ten minutes from my house and I am in a quite big ski region (called Naßfeld). Today it was great there because there were nearly no skier, the sky was azure and cloudless.

In the early afternoon I was sunbathing while I was reading Jaywalking. Try to combine these two things and you will see that the book is a lot easier to read outdoors. :-)
I got sunburnt, my first one this year. Yippee, now I am a bit red instead of white, but tomorrow I will be as pallid as yesterday. :-)
Although the hotness is unseasonable, I loved this awesome day!

Enjoy the rest of your holiday and the warm spring days!

Jaywalking with the Irish


I don´t want to summarize the plot of the pages I´ve read so far, because I think it is quite boring for SUK IV students, as everyone has to read this book on their own. But I have to mention that I have some difficulties with David Monagan´s book. The vocabulary he uses is hard to understand and if I would try to understand every single word I would need at least half an hour for one page. Sometimes it is also a bit boring and I have to admit that it is easy to lose concentration.
But I will keep on reading as I have to do and I also want to do it! ;-)


Dienstag, 10. April 2007

something about cork...

As I tell you a lot about Jaywalking with Irish today, I can´t leave out the location where it takes place.


So I am going to tell you something about it. It is called Cork (Irish: Corcaigh) and it is Ireland's third most populous city after Dublin and Belfast and has a population of 119,143. County Cork is situated in the South West of Ireland, it is the largest of all the Irish counties and in many ways the most varied. Rich farmlands and river valleys contrast with the wild sandstone hills of the west, and above all there is the magnificent coastline. The city´s name derived from an Irish word corcach meaning "marshy place", referring to its situation on the River Lee.

Cork City Council


The most important place of interest in Cork is the church tower of Shandon, which dominates the North side of the city. The cork tower on the church is known by locals as The Four-faced Liar, as from the base of the building, each clock face appears to show a different time. Shandon is accessible to the public, and the bells myay be rung by the visitors.
The picture on the right side shows the Shandon bells.



Another important sigth is the Cork City Hall which is illuminated at night and reflected in the River Lee. In 1920, during the War of Independence, it was destroyed by British forces. This event was and is known as the "Burning of Cork". The rebuilding in 1930s was provided by the British Government as a gesture of reconciliation.


For further information about Cork you can explore the following websites:

http://www.wikipedia.org/

http://www.cork-guide.ie/

And here is the URL of the University of Cork, maybe you want to do your semester abroad there.
http://www.ucc.ie/en/

Jaywalking with the Irish

As I wanted to explore some facts about David Monagan I came across the book called 'Irrwitziges Irland' which is Jaywalking with the Irish in German. I didn´t know that it is also available in my mother tongue but also if I had known I wouldn´t have bought it in German because we need the English vocabulary for our exams (only one reason :-) ). Here is a picture of David Monagan and the cover from the book.